The 2016 US Presidential Election was, to put it mildly, a fever dream. Between the shock results and the endless social media wars, one name kept popping up in the aftermath that had absolutely nothing to do with public policy: Harambe.
You remember the story. The silverback gorilla from the Cincinnati Zoo who became the world’s most pervasive meme after a tragic incident in May 2016. By November, the joke had reached its peak. On election night, as the results trickled in, a rumor caught fire on Twitter. People started claiming that 11,000—or maybe even 15,000—Americans had actually written in "Harambe" for President of the United States.
It sounded just believable enough for the internet to lose its mind. But honestly? The numbers didn't add up.
The Viral Myth of the 11,000 Votes
The idea that how many votes did Harambe get reached five figures is almost entirely a fabrication of the "too-online" era.
It basically started with a few viral tweets. One Canadian resident, Jeffrey Otingo, posted a tweet claiming he'd heard the 11,000 figure while streaming election coverage. It got retweeted over 100,000 times. From there, outlets like 9GAG and Coed ran with headlines that treated the number as a confirmed fact. People were genuinely angry. They claimed these "wasted" votes could have swung the election in key states.
Why the 11,000 number is fake:
- Timing: The rumor started on election night itself. In reality, write-in votes take weeks to be officially tabulated. There is no way anyone could have known the specific number of Harambe write-ins while the main polls were still being counted.
- State Laws: Most states don't even count write-in votes unless the person (or gorilla) has filed formal paperwork as a candidate. In at least nine states, write-in votes aren't allowed at all.
- The "Scattered" Pile: In most jurisdictions, write-ins for non-existent candidates are lumped into a category called "Scattered." They aren't individually recorded unless they actually pose a threat to the winner, which, for a deceased gorilla, was never going to happen.
Did Anyone Actually Vote for Him?
Yes. Sorta.
While the massive numbers were a hoax, some people definitely did take a photo of their ballot with "Harambe" scribbled in and posted it to Snapchat or Instagram. It was the ultimate 2016 "edgelord" move. We know these people existed because they provided the photographic evidence themselves, though many of those ballots were likely invalidated immediately by poll workers.
Interestingly, there was some real data to look at before the election. Public Policy Polling (PPP) actually included Harambe in a July 2016 poll. They found that 5% of voters supported the gorilla in a three-way race against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. By August, that "support" had dropped to 2%.
It's funny, but it also says a lot about the voter dissatisfaction at the time. People were so tired of the mainstream options that "dead gorilla" felt like a valid protest choice to at least a few survey participants.
The Math Doesn't Support the Chaos
If you look at the official 2016 FEC results, the numbers for "other" candidates are there, but they don't break down by meme. For example, in 2012, there were about 136,040 total write-in votes across the whole country. That’s only about $0.11%$ of the total.
Even if every single person who made a "Harambe" joke actually followed through at the ballot box, they wouldn't have reached 11,000 official, counted votes because of the bureaucratic hurdles mentioned earlier. To be counted in a state like Ohio, for instance, a write-in candidate has to file a declaration of intent. Harambe, being a gorilla and also deceased, failed to meet the filing deadline.
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Why This Rumor Still Matters
The Harambe vote myth is a perfect case study in how "fake news" travels. It didn't need a source. It just needed a high-stress environment and a punchline that everyone recognized.
Even today, you’ll see people cite the 11,000 figure in arguments about why the voting age should be changed or why the two-party system is broken. It has become a sort of urban legend of the digital age. It’s the "alligators in the sewers" of political science.
What to take away from this:
- Verify the source: If a "fact" appears on Twitter three hours before the official count is finished, it’s probably a joke that got out of hand.
- Write-ins are complicated: Writing in a name is rarely as simple as just writing it. Most states ignore these unless the candidate is registered.
- Memes aren't movements: While Harambe dominated the culture of 2016, that energy didn't actually translate into a statistical blip in the real election results.
If you're looking for the official number for how many votes did Harambe get, the answer is effectively "zero" in the eyes of the government, and "a handful of pranksters" in reality. The myth of the 11,000 remains exactly that—a myth.
For those interested in how write-in voting actually works in your specific state for the next election cycle, you should check your local Secretary of State’s website. Laws vary wildly from California to Florida, and knowing the rules is the only way to make sure your vote (for a human) actually counts.